A new paper from George Mason University professors Noel Johnson and Mark Koyama makes a pretty serious point: A government’s ability to raise taxes is directly related to its ability to enforce law. But the researchers explain that conclusion in a rather unconventional way, by charting the decline of witch hunts in 17th-century France. Here’s the key paragraph: Read full article > >

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A long ago beneficiary of tax hikes? The ‘witches’ of France

All the patients had the same terrible diagnosis: brain damage that marooned them in a “vegetative state” — alive but without any sense of awareness of themselves or the world around them. But then an international team of scientists tried an ambitious experiment: By measuring electrical activity in the patients’ brains with a relatively simple technique, the researchers attempted to discern whether, in fact, they were conscious and able to communicate. Read full article > >

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Technique spots patients misdiagnosed as being in ‘vegetative state’

Watch out, Natalie Portman: A University of Toronto study released Monday concludes that the fabled “Oscar Curse”-that Best Actress winners are doomed to get divorced-is indeed real. Between 1936 and 2010, the researchers say, a whopping 60 percent of…

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Study: The ‘Oscar Curse’ Is Real

While scientists at England’s Newcastle University were studying neurons in the hippocampal region of the brain, they noticed this blood vessel’s likeness to Santa Claus’s flying companions. While labeling the image, the researchers created the blob for the nose. Once the examiners noted the image’s likeness to reindeer, they then overexposed it to make the nose show up red and the antlers even whiter. According the The Mirror , the photo has no scientific value, “but it looks nice on the eye.”  View more Pictures of the Day .

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Picture of the Day: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Blood Vessel